BLM Activists Threaten Riots Over The Dexter Reed Case
CHICAGO, Ill. — Around 60 protesters showed up outside Chicago Police headquarters to protest the death of Dexter Reed, who was shot by officers after he shot at them during a traffic stop, hitting one of the officers in the arm. Officers fired over 70 times, Reed eleven.
The shooting has reinvigorated hardcore BLM activists in the city, prompting a protest outside of Chicago Police headquarters ahead of the department’s Board meeting. It was a rare BLM protest, as most of today’s street action has been related to the Israel-Hamas war (more on those later). To further highlight how the current anti-Israel protests are allied with BLM, the crowd had multiple pro-Palestine protesters in attendance.
The first question many people had when they found out about this protest was: Didn’t the body camera footage prove Reed shot first?
The answer is yes, but to the BLM protesters, it did not prove anything because the video does not show Reed holding and shooting a gun. According to them, the entire situation is Chicago Police’s fault because of the “unjustified” and “racist” traffic stop.
One of the speakers at the protest went as far as to accuse Chicago police of planting a gun.
Beyond that, a lawyer for the Reed family said multiple times it did not matter whether Reed shot first because he should still be alive.
“The question is not whether Dexter shot, the question is they started and they ended it…just because he may or may not have shot a gun,” she said.
“The police, they lie anyways. I’ve been stopped by the police. I’ve been put in jail by the police with false information. They lie,” another protester told me.
Protesters then went inside to angrily voice their doubts about Reed shooting first to the Chicago Police Board, including Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling. More than once, the attendees said “justice” needed to be done for Reed because if not, then the city can expect riots once again.
“…we might not be talking. There might be riots in the streets like 2020 all over again. It would be chaos…”
Their threats should not be viewed simply as tough talk. Even though the Reed shooting has not galvanized BLM to automatically jump to rioting, the fact they were willing to still show up to a case where it was clearly not police brutality means they are itching for an excuse.
What is happening on college campuses now, with anti-Israel protesters getting bolder with their resistance, is only going to escalate as the election season kicks into high gear. Combine that with weather being consistently warmer across the country, they are willing to take bolder action. Notice how they did not set up their outdoor encampments in January.
BLM and Palestine activists view their struggle as one in the same. They often chant, for example, “CPD, KKK, IOF (Israeli Occupation Force), are all the same!” So as the Palestine protesters escalate their tactics, should another major controversial police action take place during the summer, justified or not, I suspect we’ll get very close to a 2020 level of chaos.